Olympia Update No.
7 for the 2003 Legislative Session
April 11, 2003
From: Larry Ganders,
Assistant to the President
925 Plum St. SE - Building 4, P.O. Box 43165, Olympia, WA 98504-3165
SENATE
REPUBLICANS BOOST GOV. GARY LOCKE'S
WSU CONSTRUCTION BUDGET BY $29 MILLION
A
$35.2 million Plant Biotechnology addition to Pullman’s Johnson Hall, a $11.16
million Cleveland Hall education addition, a $4.3 million infrastructure package
for WSU Vancouver and a $1.5 million building for WSU Prosser tops the list of
construction projects recommended for Washington State University that was
unveiled by Senate Republican leaders Thursday.
The Senate capital budget
(Proposed Substitute Senate Bill 5403) increased the state debt limit to allow
the Senate to borrow an additional $350 million for a total of $1.3 billion in
bond-funded projects statewide. The Senate also proposes a modified “light”
version of the Evans-Gardner bill over the next decade to add $1 billion in new
borrowing capacity for community colleges and universities.
Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, was thanked by WSU in testimony before
the Ways and Means Committee Thursday for a budget that provided $29 million
more than the proposal recommended by Gov. Gary Locke. The proposal accelerates
two projects that were presumed by the governor for construction in 2007-2009,
providing design monies to begin construction in 2005. Those projects included a
new building to relocate the WSU College of Nursing building to the Riverpoint
Higher Education Campus and a proposal for a Tri-Cities Bio-products and Science
Building on the Richland campus.
The funding schemes are a bit more complicated
than past capital budgets but WSU received about $83.6 million in state general
fund and lottery-generated monies for the upcoming biennium, compared to about
$54 million in similar sources of funding recommended by Locke. Combined with
$26.9 million in funds provided from WSU trust lands and $7 million which the
Senate shifted in maintenance monies from the operating budget, the
university’s capital construction budget will total more than $117 million for
the next two years.
No
Funding for the Spokane Academic Center.
Washington State University still has not been successful in
adding funding in the capital budget for the $35.2 million Spokane Academic
Center on the Riverpoint Campus. This comes despite extraordinary support from
the Spokane Chamber of Commerce and others in the community. Chancellor Rom Markin and WSU President Lane
Rawlins were both in Olympia this week working for the proposal. Eastern
Washington University also weighed in to support the center which will house the
joint WSU-EWU library for the Spokane campus.
The failure of the initial Senate
budget to recommend the project does not bode well as the House is not expected
to include the building in its biennial capital construction budget, which has
not yet been released. However, Senate Majority Leader Jim West, R-Spokane, and
Sen. Larry Sheahan, R-Rosalia, were reportedly considering options that could
move the academic center forward. It is uncertain when the capital budget will
come to a vote in the Senate Ways and Means Committee as action originally
scheduled for Friday has been postponed.
No
Funding for the Wastewater Reclamation Project. The
Senate, perhaps as an error, used the same unusual funding method that the
governor proposed for a $10.7 million Wastewater Reclamation Project. The
proposal is needed to stabilize the aquifer supplying water to the
Pullman-Moscow area.
The water table serving the two communities, including two
research universities, is dropping at more than one foot per year. The Senate
budget suggests that WSU could finance the project by selling the treated water.
Since WSU is key user of the water, the project has no viable revenue source and
is therefore unfunded in the budgets proposed by the Senate and governor.
Modifications
to Classrooms and Laboratories, could be a problem with the Senate Budget
Zarelli and key Senate staff have indicated they will try to find some
solutions to serious technical problems with the Senate budget that WSU is
hopeful will get resolved before the capital construction bill emerges from
committee. The problems aren’t very sexy but if they are not resolved could
have very serious ramifications for the university.
The Senate budget takes the
innovative approach of creating a “Preservation Backlog Reduction” pool of
$43 million for the university to address issues like minor capital renewal,
safety and security issues, and pre-design for a number of proposed WSU
buildings that had to be earmarked for funding in the past.
However, the funding
does not provide for the traditional WSU categories of “Minor Capital
Improvement” projects and "WSUnet." The minor capital category was funded at
$8.5 million by the governor and WSUnet was funded at $4 million. But both were
completely omitted in the new Senate system.
The result is, without any changes,
the university will have no funds for building improvements, reconfigurations,
research laboratory upgrades, fixed equipment in laboratory space, utilities and
building system improvements, energy conservation projects, roadways and
walkway, general classroom improvements, computer networking, and projects
required under the Americans for Disabilities Act. WSU has proposed that these
projects be allowed to compete for funding in the preservation backlog reduction
pool.
Omnibus
Equipment Budget Under-funded.
The
governor also provided the full $8 million WSU requested for the omnibus
equipment budget.
The Senate budget has cut that figure back to $2 million. WSU
has suggested strategies for transferring more funding into this account without
increasing the Senate
This is the budget that provides funding for everything from
fire trucks to farm tractors to scientific equipment.
It also provides
digital television equipment for the Edward R. Murrow School
of Communication. Digital equipment is now the commercial standard in the
television industry.
